Life Lessons From Knitting

{Putting the finishing touches on this Neverland Hoodie for my friend Kris' little guy. What are you working on?}
Knitting can be pure joy. Sometimes it's smooth and easy and just clips along at a quick pace, turning out better than you could have imagined. It looks lovely, drapes beautifully and is received by it's intended owner with the appreciation you hope for when putting so much time and effort into it.

But sometimes knitting is fraught with troubles from moment one. The gorgeous yarn you pick pools horribly, or is so splitty you are rejoining every other row. The weave is either too tight or too loose. You rip back at least once after an unclear pattern steers you wrong or you miss out on some tiny detail. It can be discouraging. Disenchanting. Disappointing.

You might set it aside for a few days, take a break to breathe and remember that knitting isn't actually out to get you. You might even leave it in the basket (or, if you're me, shoved in a corner somewhere) for a month, feeling a bit sick each time you think about taking it up again.

But the thing about knitting is it grows your patience. It fosters endurance. It requires resiliency, problem solving and acceptance. I'm not going to go right out and say knitting makes me a better person, but it gives me practice in a lot of the life skills that can just be so hard to pin down. In relationships. In life in general.

It reminds me to act intentionally, give things time to sort themselves out, not get too emotionally tied up in things that really don't matter. It reminds me persistence is a good thing, but taking a break can be just exactly what any given situation needs. It reminds me that some of the biggest tangles we find ourselves in can be solved just by taking the time and refusing to rush.

Sometimes a whole project needs to be ripped out, but it always has the potential to become something new. Knitting reminds me that patience, resiliency, hard work and imagination are valuable things to keep in your toolbox. Not just for knitting. For life.




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